Echo Hall by Virginia Moffatt – Blog Tour (Review)

Atmospheric doesn’t even begin to describe this book. Gothic comes a little closer. Epic Gothic? Gothic Epic? Page-turning?

All of the above.

Spanning the lives of three women and three different wars, the author has created a story that spans time while pulling out the common threads of each of the women. Echo Hall, the house, binds them together – and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

I thought the author did a great job of making sure that each woman’s story was told succinctly. That was important because it was easier to see where the parallels were as the story proceeded. There wasn’t any guesswork involved, as sometimes happens with historical novels (especially ones that undertake the time span this one did).

I liked how the house was a character unto itself. It had almost as much to do with the life trajectories of the women as their personal choices did. I know that sounds a little bit odd, but there is nothing magical about it – the house just “is.” What I do believe, and what this author captured was that misery and sorrow can remain in a location and affect people who visit or live in the place.

I remember when my husband and I were house hunting a few years ago, there was one place that we walked through that just felt sad. Like there was no joy to be found. It was decorated nicely and looked homey, but there was just a bad feeling about it. We asked the realtor, and found out that the wife had nursed the husband in his final days of an illness, and he had died in the house. Sad, to be sure, but it was like it had gotten into the walls.

This is what came to mind as I read Echo Hall. But I digress.

Not only were the women ultimately unhappy, but the stresses of war played a part in each of their lives. It was just a whole lot of sad and kind of eerie, but all expertly woven together.

It’s hard to say whether someone would enjoy this book because it is definitely Gothic (that word again) in feeling (and by definition, I don’t think Gothic can be joyful in the traditional sense). But I would certainly recommend it.

About the author: Virginia Moffatt was born in London, one of eight children, several of whom are writers. ‘The Wave’ is her second novel. Her previous publications are ‘Echo Hall’ (Unbound) and ‘Rapture and what comes after’ (Flash fiction collection published by Gumbo Press). She also writes non fiction. Virginia is married to Chris Cole, Director of Drone Wars UK. They have two daughters at University and a son still living with them in Oxford.